tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 26 14:36:41 1996

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RE: KLBC Buy me a drink

December 26, 1996 12:31 AM, jatlh qeyloS:

> A couple people asked how one would say "Buy me a drink"
> 
> What if you nomilize the word drink and a noun suffix my the say you buy or
> you pay for ---.
> tlhutlhghachwIj yIDIl.
> 
> Does this work?

History repeating itself . . .

The verb {tlhutlh} has always been the one to use in understanding {-ghach}.  
For a long time, many people on this list would have said your sentence was 
correct.  But since HolQeD 3:3, we know it isn't.  (Actually, I didn't start 
studying Klingon and then join this list until after this article was 
published, or thereabouts, I think.  And I certainly hadn't read it until I 
joined the KLI a year ago.)

Putting {-ghach} on a bare verb means it's highly marked.  If you said this to 
a Klingon, he'd probably stop, think for a minute, and then burst out 
laughing.  It sounds funny.

Also, I would think of {tlhutlhghach} as a noun referring to the acting of 
drinking.  Let's make the verb a little more normal.  {tlhutlhlI'ghach} would 
mean the act of drinking your drink, with a known goal in sight (finishing 
it).  {tlhutlhpu'ghach} would refer to a completed act of drinking.  
{tlhutlhchoHghach} would refer to the act of beginning to drink.  And so on.

The solution: either name the drink: {HIqwIj qIj yIDIl!}, or use an {'e'} 
sentence: {jItlhutlh 'e' yIDIl!}  There's no reason that there *has* to be a 
noun for "drink."  Maybe there even is, but it has not been revealed.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 96988.1

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